Türkiye’de 1978 yılında kurulan ve idari sistem içerisinde kök salması beklenmeden 1979 yılında kapatılan Yerel Yönetim Bakanlığı’nın gerekliliği günümüzde büyükşehir belediyelerinin sayısının ve öneminin artmasına bağlı olarak tekrar sorgulanmaya başlanmıştır. Çalışmada 42. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Hükümeti zamanında kurulan ve 22 ay sonra kapatılan Yerel Yönetim Bakanlığı’nın kurulmasını gerektiren nedenler, Bakanlığın var olduğu süre zarfında yaptığı faaliyetler ve kapatılma süreci değerlendirilmektedir. Yerel Yönetim Bakanlığı’nın hizmet verdiği süre zarfında devletin yerel yönetimler üzerindeki gözetim ve denetiminin azaltılmaya çalışıldığı ve belediyelerin gelirlerini arttırıcı girişimlerde bulunulduğu tespit edilmiştir. Yerel Yönetim Bakanlığı’nın kaldırılması ile beraber yerel yönetimlerle ilgili birçok görev, yetki ve sorumluluk geçmişte olduğu gibi yine 3152 sayılı İçişleri Bakanlığı’nın Teşkilat ve Görevleri Hakkında Kanun ile İçişleri Bakanlığına bağlı Mahalli İdareler Genel Müdürlüğüne devredilmiştir. Çalışmada ayrıca Norveç, İngiltere, İrlanda, Yeni Zelanda, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti (KKTC), Kosova, Uganda, Zambia ve Filistin Yerel Yönetim Bakanlığı uygulamaları örnek verilerek Türkiye’deki gerekliliğine vurgu yapılmak istenmiştir. Sayısı 2014 yılı itibariyle 30 olan büyükşehir belediyelerinin; gerek il mülki sınırında hizmet veriyor olması gerekse eskiye nazaran birçok hizmetle sorumlu olması dikkate alındığında yerel yönetimlerin idari sistemimiz içerisindeki öneminin ve işlerliğinin artacağı anlaşılmaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmada, önemi artan yerel yönetim birimlerini, merkezi yönetimle ilişkilendirecek ve yerel yönetimlere gerekli önemi verecek Yerel Yönetim Bakanlığı’nın oluşturulmasının gerekliliği sorgulanmaktadır.

Local governments have maintained their property especially as a part of political (within the frame of political will) will in the process. Organizational structures, duties, powers and responsibilities of local governments were determined by guardianship approach of central government. However, nowadays the decisiveness and conversion occur with the under-nation state or supra-national aprroach in the scope of globalization-localization. In this process, it is seen that the relationship between central and local government and guardianship auditing is generally carried out by a ministry. In Turkey, this ministry has been Ministry of Interior except a short period of time. However, when considering the political and international developments and changes in public administration paradigm, it is seen that the local authorities gained importance, the state took a regulatory role and conversion about indigenisation occurred. Necessity of Ministry of Local Government in Turkey, which was founded in 1978 and closed in 1979 without waiting to take root in administrative system, was examined depending on increasing number and importance of metropolitan municipality. Both metropolitan municipalities and small-scaled municipal organizations have tried to be managed for a long time by Municipality Law No. 1580 came into force in 1930. Even though necessary changes were made, the implementation of the same law for many small and large scaled municipalities both generalized and made different local problems. Thus, lots of service which local government could not offer until that day were provided in the 1950s by central government. After 1960s, many important projects and reports were prepared for solving the problems of public administration and local administration; however, these studies were not implemented due to political instability. During 1970s, many important studies were carried out in specific to local governments to solve the rapidly growing urban population and urban area problems on the basis of big city management. All these studies were made by the Ministry of Development and Housing and the Ministry of Interior. However, as a result of working like a security ministry in the political turmoil, it was impossible for the Ministry of Interior to solve the problems of local in this period. In the 1978 a different way was chosen to solve the local governments problems which did not support reports and systemic changes, but support a ministery which will do these changes. Thus the ministry of local government was founded at first in due time of the 42 th Government of Turkis Repuclic for the purpose of solving the local goverments' administrative and fiscal problems and bringing efficiency and functionality to these governances. In the first place, the bank of provinces from the Ministry of Development and Housing, general directorate of local administrations from the Ministry of Interior, Planning Departments of City and Local Governments from the state planning organization included within the ministry of the Local Government. Later, the General Directorate of Local Authorities, Special Provincial Administrations and General Directorate of Villages, General Directorate of Municipalities and the General Directorate of the Fund-Loans and the Tecnical Evaulation were organized in three different general directorate within the Ministry of the Local Governments. Also, General Directorate of Education was established within the Ministry of Local Governments. While the budget of the Ministry of Local Government was 505 million TL in the 1978, it was one billion 550 million TL in the 1979 and the Ministry has grown very fast in a short time. During the 22 months when the ministry worked, it aimed to make the local governments more flexible in terms of administrative and financial aspects. Also, many local government unions that are still active were established in this period. However, the Ministry of Local Governments were cr